Notre Dame Grads Pulling For Besler In World Cup

When the U.S. plays Belgium in the knockout round of the World Cup soccer tournament Tuesday, three female Kansas City soccer players plan to watch the match together.

They’ll be paying extra attention to Sporting Kansas City defender Matt Besler. The three women have a connection with the Overland Park, Kan., native that stretches back a few years.

Most of the attention on soccer lately has focused on the action in Brazil, but the day before the U.S. match against Portugal, Jen Buczkowski took care of her own business on the soccer field.

Buczkowski is a midfielder for FCKC, the women’s professional soccer team in Kansas City. She scored the game’s only goal in FCKC’s victory over the Chicago Red Stars. The next day Buczkowski and two of her FCKC teammates, Melissa Henderson and Mandy Laddish, packed themselves among the other soccer fans at McFadden’s, an Irish sports bar in the Power & Light district. That’s fitting. All three played soccer for the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame. The same school where Matt Besler played. Buczkowski says she and Besler briefly crossed paths there.

“I knew Matt through playing. We hung out and stuff,” said Buczowski. “The men’s and women’s teams just really got along well together.”

Mandy Laddish is from Lee’s Summit and in her first year with FCKC. She’s better acquainted with Matt’s brother, Nick.

“I’m actually pretty good friends with Nick,” said Laddish. “I was with him there for three years, so I know Nick very well. Nick’s been watching the World Cup from South Bend, Indiana, where he’s a senior. Maybe it’s a little different for me because I get to see Nick and how proud he is of his brother,” Laddish added. “I just feel that radiating from him and his family, which is awesome.”

When they watched the U.S. take the lead late in the game against Portugal, the three of them celebrated with the estimated 10,000 others who had gathered in the Power & Light district. Like everyone else, they thought the U.S. was on its way to a victory.

Henderson says she felt pride to see Besler and the Americans make an impact on the world scene.

“Obviously you’re cheering for the entire team, but there’s a special connection with that one person and you’re just praying for him and hoping for the best,” said Henderson.

But all of that was suspended in disbelief when Portugal tied the match with 30 seconds left in the added time. Mandy Laddish said she felt devastated.

“But being through that multiple times as an athlete you’re know that they’re thinking, ‘All right. Now we’ve got to get it right. That’s over.’”

In the next match, the U.S. lost against Germany, 1-0, but because of the result between Ghana and Portugal, the U.S. advanced to the round of 16.

For this game, a little green will be mixed in with the red, white and blue in the Power and Light district.

Related Content

Most of the World Cup attention Thursday will be on the U.S. game against Germany. But there will be some Kansas City-area residents who will have their attention on South Korea’s game against Belgium.

Little Korea in Kansas

Tucked away off 103rd St. and Metcalf Avenue, in a strip mall in Overland Park, Kan., there is a concentration of South Korean businesses where people gather to watch soccer.

“Kansas doesn’t have like a Korea town,” says David Ahn. “So this is kind of considered like a Korea Town.”

Italy didn’t even end up in the top four spots in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. For a nation that’s obsessed with soccer, that was basically an utter failure.

This time around, the Azzurri, as the Italian team is known by its fans, started the World Cup with a strong victory over England.

Last Saturday evening, about two dozen mostly blue-clad fans of Italy’s men’s soccer team crowded into Brookside restaurant Bella Napoli to chow on pizzas, tapas and other authentic Italian food from the menu while watching their team defeat England 2-1.

As the FIFA 2014 World Cup kicks off in Brazil, we have the first installment in a series checking in on some of Kansas City’s international communities and how they’re cheering their home teams from afar.

It’s been a rocky path to the World Cup for host country Brazil: there were questions about whether the stadiums would be ready; ongoing crime concerns; and mixed emotions from Brazilians.

Many Brazilians in Kansas City are a little sad to be watching the championship tournament from a continent away, but some are quite ambivalent about the games.